Microsoft begins denying updates to some Windows 7 users

Microsoft this week began blocking Windows 7 and 8.1 PCs equipped with the very newest processors from receiving security updates, making good on a policy it announced but did not implement last year.But the company also refused to provide security fixes to Windows 7 systems that were powered by AMD's "Carrizo" CPUs, an architecture that was supposed to continue receiving patches.The decree that led to the update bans, whether allowable or not under Microsoft's new policy, was revealed in January 2016, when the company said making Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 run on the latest processors was "challenging." Microsoft then ruled that Windows 10 would be the only supported edition on seventh-generation and later CPUs and simultaneously dictated a substantial shortening of support of both editions.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft begins denying updates to some Windows 7 users

Microsoft this week began blocking Windows 7 and 8.1 PCs equipped with the very newest processors from receiving security updates, making good on a policy it announced but did not implement last year.But the company also refused to provide security fixes to Windows 7 systems that were powered by AMD's "Carrizo" CPUs, an architecture that was supposed to continue receiving patches.The decree that led to the update bans, whether allowable or not under Microsoft's new policy, was revealed in January 2016, when the company said making Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 run on the latest processors was "challenging." Microsoft then ruled that Windows 10 would be the only supported edition on seventh-generation and later CPUs and simultaneously dictated a substantial shortening of support of both editions.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft rumor: New Surface device that runs Windows Cloud

Microsoft has an event planned for May 2 believed to be focused on the education market, which has long been an Apple stronghold. It’s likely new hardware will be introduced, and some Microsoft watchers believe it will be the launch for a Windows Cloud device.Windows Cloud is rumored to be Microsoft’s answer to Google Chromebooks. It’s essentially the old Windows RT OS that failed spectacularly a few years back, except now it’s built on Windows 10 and runs apps only from the Windows Store, both Win32 apps and Universal Windows Platform Apps. RT flopped mostly because there were no apps for it and developers didn’t rush out to make any apps for it.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Worth Reading: SGXIO

Intel’s SGX provides hardware-secured enclaves for trusted execution of applications in an untrusted environment. Previously we’ve looked at Haven, which uses SGX in the context of cloud infrastructure, SCONE which shows how to run docker containers under SGX, and Panoply which looks at what happens when multiple applications services, each in their own enclave, need to communicate with each other (think kubernetes pod or a collection of local microservices). SGXIO provides support for generic, trusted I/O paths to protect user input and output between enclaves and I/O devices. (The generic qualifier is important here – currently SGX only works with proprietary trusted paths such as Intel’s Protected Audio Video Path). —the morning paper

The post Worth Reading: SGXIO appeared first on 'net work.

Worth Reading: SGXIO

Intel’s SGX provides hardware-secured enclaves for trusted execution of applications in an untrusted environment. Previously we’ve looked at Haven, which uses SGX in the context of cloud infrastructure, SCONE which shows how to run docker containers under SGX, and Panoply which looks at what happens when multiple applications services, each in their own enclave, need to communicate with each other (think kubernetes pod or a collection of local microservices). SGXIO provides support for generic, trusted I/O paths to protect user input and output between enclaves and I/O devices. (The generic qualifier is important here – currently SGX only works with proprietary trusted paths such as Intel’s Protected Audio Video Path). —the morning paper

The post Worth Reading: SGXIO appeared first on rule 11 reader.

New NSA leak may expose its bank spying, Windows exploits

A hacking group has released suspected U.S. government files that show the National Security Agency may have spied on banks across the Middle East.Numerous Windows hacking tools are also among the new batch of files the Shadow Brokers dumped Friday. In recent months, the mysterious group has been releasing hacking tools allegedly taken from the NSA, and security researchers say they actually work.Friday’s leak includes an archive describing the internal architecture at EastNets, a Dubai-based anti-money laundering company that also offers services related to SWIFT, the financial banking network.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

New NSA leak may expose its bank spying, Windows exploits

A hacking group has released suspected U.S. government files that show the National Security Agency may have spied on banks across the Middle East.Numerous Windows hacking tools are also among the new batch of files the Shadow Brokers dumped Friday. In recent months, the mysterious group has been releasing hacking tools allegedly taken from the NSA, and security researchers say they actually work.Friday’s leak includes an archive describing the internal architecture at EastNets, a Dubai-based anti-money laundering company that also offers services related to SWIFT, the financial banking network.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Avaya’s Everywhere Data Center Architecture Includes VNFs

Avaya is taking data center ‘clean room’ models and applying them to the campus.

Verizon’s ThingSpace Strives to Eliminate IoT Fragmentation

16,000 developers are already working with the ThingSpace platform.

Chimney

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Chimney

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Samsung taps DOD tech veteran to head enterprise push

Samsung Electronics has appointed the former CIO of the U.S. Department of Defense to help a global push to expand its mobile enterprise business.Terry Halvorsen served as chief information officer at the Pentagon from 2015 until this year. Before that, he served as deputy commander of the Navy Cyber Forces and deputy commander of the Naval Network Warfare Command.At Samsung, he will be an executive vice president and global enterprise advisor to J.K. Shin, president of Samsung's Mobile Communications division.Samsung said it wants Halvorsen to help expand its business in the corporate, government, and regulated industries space, where there are higher demands on security.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Samsung taps DOD tech veteran to head enterprise push

Samsung Electronics has appointed the former CIO of the U.S. Department of Defense to help a global push to expand its mobile enterprise business.Terry Halvorsen served as chief information officer at the Pentagon from 2015 until this year. Before that, he served as deputy commander of the Navy Cyber Forces and deputy commander of the Naval Network Warfare Command.At Samsung, he will be an executive vice president and global enterprise advisor to J.K. Shin, president of Samsung's Mobile Communications division.Samsung said it wants Halvorsen to help expand its business in the corporate, government, and regulated industries space, where there are higher demands on security.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Ignore Next-Generation Data Center Technologies at Your Own Risk

Enterprises risk falling behind a smaller group of industry peers.

Prices of SSDs and DRAM will crash in 2019, Gartner predicts

The prices of PCs, smartphones, and tablets are going up, with higher component prices to blame. Shortages in DRAM, flash, batteries and displays are hitting buyers in the wallet.Minor relief is in sight next year when prices of memory and NAND flash -- which is used in SSDs -- will start to gradually decline. But prices will plummet big time in 2019, predicted Jon Erensen, research director for semiconductors at Gartner.The impact could be felt on the prices of PCs and mobile devices. But it's too early to predict the exact impact of the projected NAND and DRAM price crashes on PCs and mobile devices, Erensen said.If the prices drop, it may be affordable for computer users to acquire components off the shelf and build PCs at home. But the prices of pre-made devices, in the end, depend on what PC makers do with the savings resulting from cheaper component pricing.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

FCC’s deregulation of business data lines could mean a price hike

If you operate a small or medium-size U.S. business, you can expect to pay more for broadband services in the near future because the U.S. Federal Communications Commission plans to deregulate providers of business data lines, critics of the proposal say.Users of ATMs, shoppers in stores that use credit card scanners, and mobile phone customers could also see prices go up after the FCC deregulates the so-called business data services (BDS) market. Schools and hospitals also depend on BDS for their broadband service, and prices could rise as much as 25 percent in areas where the FCC removes price caps, critics warn.The FCC is scheduled to vote Thursday on a proposal from Republican Chairman Ajit Pai that would deregulate large parts of the BDS market, which generates an estimated US$45 billion a year for AT&T, Verizon, and other telecom carriers. Incumbent telecom carriers welcome the plan, saying there's plenty of competition in the BDS market, sometimes called special access.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

FCC’s deregulation of business data lines could mean a price hike

If you operate a small or medium-size U.S. business, you can expect to pay more for broadband services in the near future because the U.S. Federal Communications Commission plans to deregulate providers of business data lines, critics of the proposal say.Users of ATMs, shoppers in stores that use credit card scanners, and mobile phone customers could also see prices go up after the FCC deregulates the so-called business data services (BDS) market. Schools and hospitals also depend on BDS for their broadband service, and prices could rise as much as 25 percent in areas where the FCC removes price caps, critics warn.The FCC is scheduled to vote Thursday on a proposal from Republican Chairman Ajit Pai that would deregulate large parts of the BDS market, which generates an estimated US$45 billion a year for AT&T, Verizon, and other telecom carriers. Incumbent telecom carriers welcome the plan, saying there's plenty of competition in the BDS market, sometimes called special access.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

SDxCentral Weekly News Roundup — April 14, 2017

Nokia picks VoltDB to power enterprise apps; Avaya's networking fabric reaches 1,000 customers.

Ecommerce websites on Cloudflare: best practices

Cloudflare provides numerous benefits to ecommerce sites, including advanced DDOS protection and an industry-leading Web Application Firewall (WAF) that helps secure your transactions and protect customers’ private data.

A key Cloudflare feature is caching, which allows content to be served closer to the end user from our global network of data centers. Doing so improves the user's shopping experience and contributes to increasing the proportion of people completing a purchase (conversion rate).

For example:

• Walmart found improving page load time by 1 second increased their conversion rate by 2%
• Research for Amazon showed every 0.1 second of delay costs 1% of sales
• The Barack Obama campaign website saw an 80% page load time boost resulted in a 14% increase in donations

What is caching?

Cloudflare operates over 110 data centers around the world. When a website implements Cloudflare, visitor requests for the site will proxy through the nearest Cloudflare data center instead of connecting directly to the webserver hosting the site (origin). This means Cloudflare can store content such as images, JavaScript, CSS and HTML on our servers, speeding up access to those resources for end-users.

Most ecommerce websites rely on a backend database containing product descriptions and metadata Continue reading

Show 335: A Deep Dive Into NFV

Todays Weekly Show explores the technology of NFV, business drivers & use cases, and how it differs from SDN. Our guest is Jeff Doyle. The post Show 335: A Deep Dive Into NFV appeared first on Packet Pushers.